Saturday, June 25
Malcapuya Island Resort, Coron
What a fun day so far already, and it’s only 11:06 a.m. We are boating away from Malcapuya (about 90 minutes from Coron), where we spent the night and left at 10:30 today.
Woke on the island at 5:30 a.m to Drew’s question, “Did you miss the sunrise already?” Apparently, my alarm clock didn’t work. Raced over and caught part of it fortunately. The most fiery part was over by the time we reached the east beach, but still had a bit of a sunrise show left.
Then ran “with” Sierra. I use the term “with” loosely, since I couldn’t quite keep up with her. Three white dogs from the resort ran alongside with her, funny things. They got quite a bit of exercise between Sierra, a little bit of me, and then Sabrina again. Felt bad as Wesley showed me his legs, peppered with red welts from sand fly bites. We hadn’t heeded Elee’s reminder to put on bug spray, I guess because we thought the kids would be okay sleeping in the tent. Reminded me of our first Philippine trip in 2007 when Sierra was a baby and she got so many mosquito bites on her poor cute little forehead.
Drew and mine’s hut was fun to sleep in, and nice to sleep on a mattress with pillows, while the kiddies slept in a six-person tent, but it was a little hot sleeping under a sheet, in my attempt to keep the sand flies from biting me. I got up in the middle of the night to use the toilet, and that was a little unnerving – with some creature in the forest howling for revenge from the day’s wrong, with bird calls, and who knew what else called, crickets and short creature shrieks.
After my run, I wanted so badly to cool off, so I swam, and that was awesome and relaxing. Clear water, fine sand, and a deserted beach. Elee then called us over for breakfast. He had fixed a yummy breakfast of tortang talong (eggplant omelette), which I hadn’t had in a long time, and the fish that the kids and Drew caught yesterday, “Kawil” (or traditional style, using a line, a steel rod weight, hook and bait). Yummy fried then dipped in white vinegar with sili.
Swam again after breakfast, during which, our crew leader Renlee motioned for me to come to the beach, with snorkeling gear in hand. He read my mind – because just shortly before that I told Drew I wish we could snorkel, even if the coral there wasn’t as spectacular as other places. We originally started with three snorkeling masks, but it was so fun, I asked about more masks. Apparently, they lost one overboard and one cracked. So Renlee borrowed two from the resort.
Wow, it’s amazing what is underwater. It is clear water, but until you wear a snorkeling mask, you don’t realize the extent of how much marine life there is, a lot of it blending with their surroundings, the sneaky marine life. So cool. My favorites: an anemone with “Nemo” and his family, a goofy looking blue-lipped fish that looks almost fake, and schools of different colored fish hanging out together at the coral, a funny Jabba the Hut like face coming out of a hole. It was fun, but a little nerve-wracking to see the kids go out so deep they can’t touch, and they are spitting out their tubes and draining their masks. But our guides were so nice, they came out too and had a lifesaver, which was great for my peace of mind.
I got Sierra to surface enough, when I asked her about the resort’s offer to take us out snorkeling on a boat (hanging on to it) for fifty pesos, she readily agreed. Which was good; it made me realize it was like 1.25 dollars for this special entertainment so why not even though we would only have 45 minutes. And boy, was it worth it. We had seen fish earlier, quite spectacularly, without the help of a boat, but we did see some fun, different ones. But the fun part was, when the boat stopped, fish swarmed us (probably used to being fed with bread pieces –an offer that the guy extended earlier, did I have bread? But the way our Kawil crew explained it, I know now that fish feeding is not such a good idea. Still, it was super cool to have all these fish swarm us. So much so my fingernails scraped their scales occasionally. I am glad we got an underwater camera.
When we got out of the water, all these tourists from other boats arrived. A whole island full. Certainly there was room for them and all of us, had that been the case, but it sure was nice to have the island all to ourselves for most of our stay. And to have that peace and quiet.
= = =
Next stop: Banul beach for lunch. Gosh at this rate of how Elee is feeding us such good food, I will have to hit Crossfit extra hard when I get back. He is a master at presentation and taste. At least this food is not processed, and the ripe yellow mango is heaven. Banul is a strip of white sand with turquoise waters and sheds for picnickers, a perfect stop for tour boats. I asked Elee what is the biggest number of tourists he’s handled before, and he said something like 40, requiring them to rent two other boats. I can see him handling such a group with aplomb.
One sad side detail. While waiting for the crew to finish getting ready, the girls noticed a cat tied up at the neck to the side of the beach store. Just about a cat length, and it was panting so hard, they wanted to give it water. They got a little clam shell and filled it with barrel water, but it didn’t help itself, unfortunately.
After Banul, we went to Twin Lakes Lagoon, which are two bodies of water separated by a six foot slot, where you could either climb up and down into another lagoon (thus the name), or dive underwater. The kids – no surprise – chose the underwater route. Our crew guides for this tour advised us against it. In the end, Sabrina drew a compliment on her bravery and how strong she was when she dove in.
Lastly, we stopped at he quintessential Coron landmark – Kayangan Lake. We got our photo taken at the “viewpoint,” and we swam around in what felt mostly fresh water, which felt good after the salt water. It is fun to see the camaraderie between my kids and the crew, especially Bernard, who has been so kind and attentive to them.
Came “home” spotting jelly fish in the water (they look like submerged plastic bags) along on the boat ride, then stopped at the palenke for food the next day (Sunday). Bought santol, mango, apples, barbecue pork, cheese bread, as well as pastries filled with ube and this tasty filling.
After showering, we all walked down to the end of the street and ate at a turo-turo (point-point, so named because that is how you order). Nilagang baka was a favorite, and then there was pork adobo, and ginataang squash, caldereta. It was fun to be reminded of how at home Sierra is, as she took us there and told us turo-turos were her favorite thing on her mission. One sad side note, one that Sabrina said made her feel more aware of what the life elsewhere than Utah could be, a boy who looked about eight stopped at our table after dinner and asked if he could have Sabrina’s adobo leftovers. Startled, I asked him if the restaurant owners were okay with this, he said yes, so I gave it to him. Our last view of him, after we left, he took over Sabrina’s seat and started eating her soup, too. How I wish more can be done so that children all over the world wouldn’t ever have to go hungry.
As I craved dessert, we looked into biko, etc. at restaurants. But the sticky rice desserts are usually sold in the morning or midday, when someone Hawks it, we were told. Luckily, a store sold treats and I picked an ube pinipig. Yum – so much so that Wesley teased he would open an ube shack someday.
On our way home, passed by Ate Maggie Palanca’s place. She is in Australia, but the young woman there said she was a distant relation. A young man there said he could take us tomorrow to the Palancas in his tricycle for however long, for 700 pesos. Currently, they have a fiesta going on – feast of San Juan. Super excited to meet family and to go to the cemetery tomorrow after LDS church services in the morn.
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